Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a courtyard garden. Which edibles will tolerate less than ideal growing conditions. Discovering how veggies can grow in partial shade.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

My Furry Cucumber!

This Spring I was fortunate to obtain some cucumber seeds from Mas Du Diable in a seed swap. The origins of this variety of cucumber are little known, but they are supposed to have been grown by one family in Bari, Italy for many generations. The old man in this family said that this variety had been handed down through the generations but he was afraid that he now had no-one in his family who were interested in keeping it going. Thus, these seeds were handed over.

It is believed to be from the genus cucumis melo - which is a cucumber which is more related to a melon, hence this furry jacket that you sometimes feel on melons.

After picking you just gently rub the furry jacket off under some water...

And you are left with a beautiful, pale, lunch-box sized cucumber.

That tastes wonderful! Mild, crispy and refreshing. The texture is just a little bit wetter and less dense than a usual cucumber - I can see where the close relationship to the melon family comes in here. So far, this is the only one on the plant this year. Fingers crossed for a couple more, they were delicious.

Hi Matron,you are always coming up with something different from your garden!Furry cucumbers are new to me, our common or garden ones are a disaster this year for some reason so trying to grow anything even slightly exotic is out. You have a great harvest in the previous post.

Came by to admire your produce, the furry cucumbers are quite grand...since my husband died,I am no longer "Annie's 24 x 24 Garden" (the garden was for him to enjoy out his window), I'm now "Theanne and Baron.....starting over". I'm happy the "gnome is coming home." what an excellent journey he had around the world. Theanne aka Annie

Oh this is a new one on me. I've seen them with spikes but not fur - that must be one fancy pants cucumber, though I hope they only wear fake fur - hahaha(I make myself laugh and that's all that matters *blush*)

Hi Matron. Greetings from Southern California, USA. I would be interested in obtaining some seeds from this cucumber, if you're into seed saving. I recently joined Seed Savers Exchange and would be happy to spread this cucumber around here in the states. I would hate to see it die out.

Lou - that is important, to keep these going. This is my only cucumber so far this year. I have a few miniscule furry growths on another plant, yet to see if it comes to anything. I will certainly offer up seeds if I get any.

Hi Matron Glad you liked the Bari CucsJust to note that if you want the plants to produce more cucs they need to be harvested before they start to swell a belly if you know what I mean - Obviously for seed saving they need to be left till fully mature. The cucs swell much bigger and loose their hair when they are fully matire and start to taste sweeter more like a melon. I put up a page about this cuc on my blog www.masdudiable.com

That looks like a Mezzo Lungo di Polignano from Bari. Very tasty cucumber variety! I grow these and many other cucumber-melon and Carosello varieties. They are often less suseptable to disease in my climate. I enjoy them for eating because they are always bitter-free and burpless.

About Me

I was born 20 yards from our allotment. My parents used to 'dig for victory' and never got out of the habit. I grew up on an allotment, so growing veggies is a way of life. I am also qualified as a dog behaviourist and I have set up my own business, www.blackdogdna.com